Pours a clear dark orange-brown with a foamy khaki head that fades to nothing. Small dots of lace slowly drip into the remaining beer on the drink down. Smell is of toasted malt, roasted malt, and slight cocoa aromas. Taste is much the same with sweet toast and roasted malt flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of roast bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is an above average beer that is drinkable but pretty sweet in the flavors. (554 characters)

A: The beer is black when viewed from afar but appears clear and very dark reddish brown in color when it is held up a bright light. It poured with a short light beige head that died down, leaving a large patch of bubbles in the center and a collar around the edge of the glass.S: Light to moderate aromas of dark malts and cola are present in the nose.T: Like the smell, the taste has flavors of dark malts and cola along with notes of coffee and hints of roast.M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and slightly watery on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.O: This beer is easier to drink, but seems to be a bit watered down compared to some of the other beers in the style.

a collaboration with red hook, make your own judgments on their direction. a beer for the chive, which is apparently some college kid website, I don't know. what I do know, is that this brew is hopelessly average. its a dark amber color, not black, and has about an inch of caramel colored head, but it fades fast. light and easy drinking, the lager characteristics are quite pronounced, with just a medium roast on the malt, and a bit of a watered down vibe. easy enough to drink and not off in any way, but boring in terms of flavor. a little sweet, quick finish. one thing I will say for it though is that at least its a dark beer. I mean, there are enough crappy low budget college guy beers out there, I am glad they went a different direction with this, but it offers just a few of the elements of a truly craft black lager, or a german schwarzbier. this doesn't have any of the richness or the grain character, but it gets a passing low C grade from me. (960 characters)

12oz bottle. "Resign from the routine" - their lager didn't make me believe that for one hot second, so let's hold out higher hopes for the black version.

This beer pours a dark, red-brick amber hue, with two fingers of puffy, densely foamy, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some decent layered paint swath lace around the glass as it gentle melts away.

The carbonation is quite soft in its generally frothy rendering, the body an adequate medium weight, and mostly smooth, just a bit of lingering ash pricking and prodding, to little effect. It finishes trending sweet, as the malt makes one final stab through the mire of stale coffee roast and inert hops.

Not a bad version of the style, per se, the blackened character certainly loud and proud, which elevates this offering well above the pithy dreck of its basic lager brethren. Easy to drink, and appreciate, especially if the only reason you bought this was because the label just jives with your web surfing habits. (1,321 characters)

Smell: You've got your toast, you've got your roast, but you've not got much of either, really. Just a little smoke, a little basic chocolate, and some fruity esters.

Taste: This one falls into the middle ground between toasty and roasty, but, it's not overly flavorful either way. Intermingled fruitiness, a lil' red berry. Light, spicy, leafy hops with a medium-low bitterness aided by the meager roastiness and edginess of the suds. As it warms, some chocolate emerges. Faintly roasty, drying finish.

Do you really wanna name your brewery after what you feel when you sadly settle? Anyway, this stuff pours a clear midnight garnet topped by a finger of glowing wan khaki foam. The nose comprises mildly roasted malts, cocoa powder, light coffee powder, toasted rye bread, and a touch of grass. The taste brings in more of the same, though the rye (now slightly less toasted, the underlying bread clearly visible) is now more potent and more upfront and self-confident. The body is a light medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a fluid feel. Overall, a nice little schwarz, nothing truly special, but something I wouldn't mind occasionally indulging in. (693 characters)

A: The beer is a dark brown color, with a short off-white head that fades quickly and leaves a thin lace on the glass.

S: The aroma contains chocolate, coffee, roasted malts and a touch of hops.

T: The taste starts out with mildly sweet flavors of coffee and chocolate. Then some breadiness comes in from lager yeast and a hearty malt character. The hops presence is mild but complementary and provides a good balance. The after-taste is slightly bready and slightly sweet.

I purchased this from Brass Rail, enjoyed chilled in a willybecker from the twelve oz. brown bottle.

The color is dark brown with translucent clarity with thick creamy white head with fine bead. The smell has strong roasted aromas with mild nutty and toast elements with slight earthy coffee-like odor and gentle sweet malt accent. The feel is very good, smooth low bitterness from roasted grain with nice malt body and moderate carbonation veering toward med high with low alcohol and moder light body.

The taste is good with dark toasted grain and nutty flavor with light caramel accents and light hint of nutty toffee with some earthy and dry finish with almost spicy taste from high carbonation. The overall take is it is a decent dark lager with some interesting malt yet it is not really a standout style wise. (821 characters)

12 ounce bottle into lager glass, bottled on 4/23/2014. Pours crystal clear reddish brown color with a 1 finger dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a light amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, roasted malt, toast, dark bread, light nuttiness, herbal, light fruits, and roast/yeast earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of roast/bready malt and light hop/yeast notes; with good strength. Taste of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, roasted malt, toast, dark bread, light nuttiness, herbal, light fruits, and roast/yeast earthiness. Slight earthy/roasted bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, roasted malt, toast, dark bread, light nuttiness, and roast/yeast earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice complexity and balance of roast/bready malt and light hop/yeast ester flavors; with solid robustness and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a smooth, crisp, and lightly bready/chalky mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is well hidden with minimal warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very good schwarzbier style. Nice complexity/balance and solid robustness of roast/bready malt and light hop/yeast flavors; and very smooth and crisp to drink. A nicely enjoyable offering. (1,416 characters)

I have no idea why today has been so filled with bottled lagers, but that is the way that The Great Bottle Purge of 2014 is progressing. I have a feeling that I will soon revert to form, however, and break out the AIPAs.

From the bottle: "A Resignation recipe brewed in collaboration with Redhook"; "Resign from the Routine".

If you know anything about my operations here at Chez Woody, you know that I often (usually) employ a very heavy hand in conducting my pours. This is especially true when it is a dark-colored beer as it makes the pseudo-cascade that much more visible. I watched gleefully as it settled into two-plus fingers of dense, rocky, light-tan head with good retention. My BJCP app tells me that the color is Coppery-Brown (SRM = > 17, < 22), but I would call it Mahogany. Once more, the clarity in a lager is stunning! NE-quality calibre and I plan to listen to an interview with Val Midwest shortly. Nose had a burnt charcoal smokiness. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, which is okay in a lager. The taste had a pleasant smokiness that actually put the flavor in Mikkeller's Rauch Geek Breakfast to shame. Finish was semi-dry, sort of smoky and definitely a real find! (1,187 characters)

Bottle from Bert'sClear dark brown color with ruby highlights and a smallish off white head that dissipates quickly. Caramel malt with a hint of chocolate and crusty bread makes up the majority of the aroma. The flavor is what I expected from the aroma. Toasted bread and light caramel and chocolate. Medium body with a moderate level of carbonation and a slick smooth mouthfeel. Decent beer but less chocolate creamy mouthfeel than I usually expect from the style. (466 characters)

Pours a very nice clean/clear dark golden brown color, very nice carbonation, with a nice one-finger fizzy light tan head, with some nice sticky lacing, which disappated quickly. The nose is malty. The taste is malty, not much going on with this one, watery. Light body, with a slightly dry/bitter finish. Overall, too macro for me. (332 characters)

This is a decent easy to drink Black Lager. Pours a very dark ruby with white head that is not lacing. The scent and taste follow most black lagers malt with touches of smoke and peat. The body is light with smooth carbonation. Overall its good. (249 characters)

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a deep mahogany amber with a fine, one finger very light tan head with good retention and lacing. Mild aroma of biscuit malt with bare hints of toastiness, similar to an average lager. Flavor also mild, light toasted biscuit malt, slightly sweet, finishes with a suggestion of grassy hops. Surprisingly medium body with hints of creaminess. A very subdued and bland schwarzbier, touching on but not grasping the elements of the style. An odd, mild astringency in the finish that would not have been a problem with a bit more robust flavor. Contract brewed by Redhook and the kind of safe, bland beer I've come to expect from them days. Since there were no reviews of this, I did some internet searching to try to find out more about this odd beer that someone at a craft beer store just gave me (I think it was a review bottle). Everything about it seems to be a sea of red flags. It is apparently a brewery launched as part a "branding" exercise for a website (The Chive) that specializes in boob photography (but in a ironic way, understand). I have nothing against boobs nor their photography, but it does not necessarily bode well that a "craft" beer was chosen as a adjunct to the project unless there is some brewing vision. They named themselves Resignation Brewery although there is no brewery and this is produced by Redhook. The choice of Redhook, which once, but no longer really has much craft beer following and has become rather pedestrian, is not promising. Then the website is simply a graphic of a running ostrich, that's it (branding!). NO text or information. Further internet research finds lots of news releases on the Chive group starting brewing, but virtually nothing beyond boilerplate about the beer or why they were motivated to start brewing beyond expanding the brand. Sorry, but brands without content or purpose are not of interest to me. So I guess if you are a Chive fan and appreciate the ironic premise of the site, this may well be an excellent brew to quaff while perusing the site. Otherwise treat it like any other Redhook beer or branding exercise. Not too bad for a mild intro level schwarzbier, no major flaws (as I would expect from Redhook). Otherwise, only Chive fans and sad ass tickers like me should apply here. It's worth checking the website right now for a great example of vacuous information. (2,395 characters)

Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has a cola color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is smokey, some firewood. Taste is light, smoke, some bitterness, a bit on the mild side. Feels light in the mouth and overall, while not a bad beer, just seems to be lacking any omph. (264 characters)

Bottle courtesy of D-Day served in a pilsener glass. Pours a translucent mahogany with a loose, 1/8th inch, cream-colored cap. Nose expresses chocolate malt, a hint of char and perhaps a trace of something metallic. Taste consistent with nose but comes off a bit dull-chocolate character in the nose is lacking and overshadowed by the char. Finishes with a kiss of noble hops and a trace of wet cardboard. Mouthfeel is light in body with a carbonation that falls just shy of prickly and a slightly dry finish. Overall, this beer comes off a bit dull and flavorless for the style. (579 characters)

It definitely has the look of a Schwarzbier, with the dark color and easing in of light at the edges and into the body as well as the clarity and brightness considering. It has the lighter-bodied look despite a dark color. The head doesn't show a lot of structure, though not bad. It holds up as a sparsely bubbled cap maintaining a modicum of sloppy foam and leaves some spotting, even as some bubbling and a decently thick foam remains for the entirety.The aroma's a bit difficult to pull out. There's toast with a roasted edge under a moderate but not particularly stable malt foundation. The toast does come out a little more and some dry baker's chocolate come out after time to fill it out.The taste offers very much the same, and this barely goes the right direction between light being weak and actually having some structure and depth. The toast, roast and powdery semi-sweet cocoa do take their places, though, and a hint of acrid char eases out before it begs too much attention.The light carbonation supports some crispness in a light body. It's a bit smooth, but it could use more than just simplicity to make it lighter and join the ranks of great Schwarzbiers. (1,178 characters)

Appearance – The beer pours a cola brown color with a one finger of tan colored head. The head fades relatively quickly leaving a tiny level of lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the beer is biggest of a roasted malt smell with it also being mixed with some coffee aromas and a tiny bit of cocoa. Along with these smells are some caramel and a little bit of a yeasty smell.

Taste – The taste begins with a sweet darker fruit flavor of plum and cherry mixed with a milk chocolate and molasses sweetness as well. A roasted malt flavor is present right from the start with it remaining throughout the taste and with the sweeter flavors creating a base flavor for the brew. As the taste advances from the start, a little bit of a nutty flavor and some yeasty flavors come to the tongue. Around the middle of the taste a coffee flavor comes to the tongue with it growing more intense at the end of the taste, leaving a somewhat subdued but sweet and roasted flavor to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is medium in thickness and creaminess with a carbonation that is average as well. The middle of the road carbonation and body give a decent balance for upholding the darker and sweeter flavors of the brew all while still maintaining a somewhat crisper and easier drinking feel for a black lager of 5.1 %.

Overall – A decent schwarzbier overall. And while a bit on the sweeter side it is rather drinkable with a decent bland of roasted flavors to match the sweet. (1,550 characters)

A- Black bodied ale poured into my glass but some light pierces the very edges. A one finger white cap builds up to half a finger. Fizzy, foamy head falls to a ring quickly. Lacing is a mix of spots and webs.

T- The roast profile from the aroma carries over but much more lager yeast comes into play in the flavor. Light fruits like apple and some bready yeast notes. Light cocoa powder, cereal, biscuit and toast grains form the base.

MF- Medium bodied overall with fairly high carbonation. While the carbonation is high, it does bring out a smooth, creamy texture onto the palate.

Promising aroma leads to just a decent flavor. The smooth malts in the smell get mixed up with a decent lager yeast profile and it feels a bit watered down. (895 characters)